Bale-tearing machine



April 5, 1927.

F. COLLEY BALE TEARING MACHINE Filed March 51, 1925 INVENTOR Fred ColleBY M OW ATTORNEY the work.

inches thick and about fi Patented Apr. 5, 1927.,

UNITED STATES FRED COLLEY, OF AKRON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE GOODYEAR TIRE& RUBBER Cd]!!- PANY, OF AKRON, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

BALE-TEARING MACHINE,

Application filed March 31, 1925.v Serial No. 19,748.

My invention pertains to rubber manufacture and it is particularlyrelated to the manipulation of crude baled rubber.

One object of my invention is to provide a machine for separating baledrubber into sections of such size as to facilitate manipulation of therubber on an ordinary mill.

Another object of my invention is to provide a machine which willminimize the manual labor heretofore required, as well as to eliminatethe disagreeable character of Baled crude rubber, as received fromplantations is made up of a plurality of sheets, each beingapproximately twelve inches wide, from twenty-four to thirty inches longand less than a quarter of an inch thick. Several such sheets aresuperposed to form what may be called a book. This unit isapproximatelfy two and one-half teen inches square. A plurality ofbooks, in turn, are compressed to form a bale, which containsapproximately 24.0 pounds of rubber.

It is commonly known that plastic materials ma be made integral witheach other under t e action of premure and heat.

This phenomenon is present in the handling of raw rubber and is met onlyat considerable expense, since a bale must be separated into book formbefore the rubber can be utilized in any manufacturing process. In thepast this separation has been accomlished manually. The work is not onlydisagreeable but strenuous, especially in cases where the bale has aged,thereby cans-' in adjacent elements to unite in forming a su tantiallyinseparable .union. At best, it is only with considerable exertion-thatone is able to manipulate these large masses of rubber in order todislodge the subordinate units. To overcome this undesirable task, Ihave provided a machine which will clamp 21. bale in position anddisengage the individual units.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side view of a machine embodyin my invention and ig. 2'is anend view thereof. Referring to Fig. 1, it will be apparent that theclamping means and the disengaging device are separate units which,however, operate in conjunction to effect a common purpose. The clampingdevice consists of a frame haying two horizontally disposed base members3, to each of which are joined vertical standards 4, which are held inposition by braces 5 and cross members 6. The base members aremaintained in parallel relationship by means of angle irons 7, whichalso serve as supports for other angle irons 8, parallel to and abovethe base members 3. Irons 8 journal a plurality of rolls 9 which areadapted to convey bales of rubber to a final position, indicated bybroken lines at 10.

In the position indicated, the bales rest on a" plurality of sharpenedprongs 12, vertically disposed upon supplementary chan nel irons 13,which are rigidly connected to the frame by a cover platel l and bolts15. The bale is made secure in the device by additional prongs 18,formed integrally with a clamping member 17, which is adapted forreciprocating movement between guides 19. The member 17 is linked to aconnecting rod 20 that is actuated by a piston in a cylinder 22. Apivotal joint 23 allows for horizontal play of member 17 on its guideswithout disturbing the actuating mechanism.

may be admitted through the pipe 27, thus forcing the piston downwardand at the same time allowing the fluid below the cylinder to exhaustthrough the pipe 26.

The disengaging means is suspended from an overhead support 30 andcomprises a cylinder 31 provided with a control valve 32, which issimilar to the valve 24. A rod 33 connects a piston within the c linderto a chain 34 carrying a hook 35. y forcing the valve handle downward,as indicated by the arrow, a fluid under pressure, preferably air. isadmitted to the base of the cylinder which causes the rod and chain tomove upwardly. Upon releasing the valve handle a spring- 36 actuates thevalve to reverse t e direction of flow of the air and the piston dropsto its original position.

The operation of the machine will be apparent fromthe foregoingdescription. A. bale of rubber to be separated into its sub under theclamping member 17, which is v initially in raised position. Air is thenadmitted to the cylinder 22 by operation of the valve 2- effecting adownward movement of "the piston contained in the cylinder to (ause"engagement of the member 17 with the bale of rubber. Thereafter, thehook is lowered to a suitable position by operation of the valve 32, andthe hook is then engaged with a portion of the bale. Thereupon the valve32 is again operated in a reverse direction to effect an up wardmovement of the hook 35, whereby a portion of the rubber engaged by thehook is separated from the main body portion of the bale. The operationof lowering and raising the hook is repeated the requisite number oftimes to separate the bale into the number ofunits desired. The clampingmember 17 is then raised from engagement withthe bale by suitableoperation of the valve 24 to direct air into the lower partof thecylinder 22 through the conduit 26.

It will be realized that by practicing my invention, the bales may bereduced with a minimum of manual labor. Moreover, the Work is no longerdisagreeable, inasmuch as no heavy units need be handled.

Although I have described and illustrated but a single embodiment of myinvention, it will be apparent to anyone skilled in the art that it isnot so limited and may be subjected to wide variations Without departingfrom the spirit and scope thereof. I desire, therefore, that only suchlimitations shall be imposed as are consistent with the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A machine for tearing bales which comprises a frame provided Withmeans for conveying a bale to an Operable position, and means forengaging a portion thereof while separating its composite units.

2. A. machine for tearing bales of rubber which comprises a frameprovided with a means of approach,a pneumatically controlled means forclamping the bale and means for separating its composite units.

3. A rubber bale tearing machine comprising a frame, fluid-controlledmeans for curing a bale of rubber mounted therein and fluid-controlledmeans for disengaging the units of the rubber bale.

4. A bale tearing machine including means for disengaging the units of abale, means adapted to convey the bale to a clamping device, said devicecomprising a pressure fluid mechanism adapted tocompress the balebetween irregular surfaces.

5. A bale tearing machine comprising a frame provided with a clampingdevice, a suitable conveyor and manually controlled means adapted todetach single leaves comprising a hook joined to a reciprocatingmechanism.

6. A bale separatin machine comprising a. frame, a pneumatica 1yoperated clamping, member mounted for reciprocating movement in theframe, a plurality of rolls forming an approach to the clamping memberand a hook juxtaposedv to theclamping memher and flexibly connected to apneumatically operated piston.

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name.

FRED COLLEY.

